Dachel News Update: Slate.com Accuses RFK Jr of Being...
On June 11, 2013, Slate.com made a strong case for not being fair and balanced when the issue is vaccine safety. In the piece, So Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Called Us to Complain, Laura Helmuth blamed Kennedy for perpetuating the idea that our ever-expanding vaccination schedule isn't safe. Helmuth wasn't interested in talking about what evidence Kennedy has to back his claims, instead she dismissed the issue in the first paragraph saying, vaccines are "beyond scientific debate."
Helmuth neatly explained away all the autism everywhere saying that it's "mostly a matter of better diagnoses and and more parents seeking services." That said, she went on to tell us that the mercury used in vaccines "isn't the dangerous kind," and besides, scientists removed it from vaccines while the rate of autism continues to increase. In the middle of her defense of thimerosal paragraph, Helmuth wrote that "the study by Andrew Wakefield purporting to show a link was entirely made up." This claim makes Helmuth look either confused or ill-informed. Why? Because MMR is a live virus vaccine that never contained thimerosal. Wakefield never mentioned about thimerosal.
Helmuth went on to defend CDC officials and Seth Mnookin and label Kennedy as "delusional and dangerous."
I really can't see how her attitude can be justified when the controversy is this heated and there so many experts on both sides. Shutting down the debate at Slate will hardly settle the issue. Parents know there is more to this than the tired official mantra, "studies show no link."
Helmuth tried her best to convince us that Kennedy is a conspiracy nut with no valid science on his side and that he just won't go away.
In the real world, parents know what's going on. They know that mercury, aluminum and other components of vaccines have never been safety tested by the FDA. Laura Helmuth may think that injecting the second deadliest element on earth into children can't hurt them, but the truth is, the research the FDA has relied on is from a 1930 study done by the maker of thimerosal, the drug company, Eli Lilly. Eli Lilly tested it on 22 patients with meningitis who were all dead by the end of the study. Eli Lilly said it was safe and the FDA was happy to take their word for it.
Parents also know about Hannah Poling, the girl from Georgia whose vaccine damage case resulted in experts from HHS conceding that yes, her vaccinations caused her to become autistic. They also know that over 80 cases in vaccine court were decided in favor of the petitioner who alleged that vaccinations resulted in autism.
The public is scared. More and more parents believe vaccines cause autism. They're hearing it from countless other parents everywhere. They took their beautiful, healthy children in for routine vaccinations and suddenly they changed. They got sick, they lost learned skills, many stopped talking, and they regressed into autism. Their children's doctors couldn't explain why it happened. The only thing they were sure of is that it just couldn't be the vaccines. They had all the studies, endlessly tied to the vaccine makers, to prove it.
Parents also know that kids are sick. Our schools are filled with students who have life-threatening allergies, diabetes, learning problems, autism, asthma, and seizure disorders. The medical community seems satisfied that having so many sick kids is acceptable.
And parents aren't really impressed with pronouncements from places like the Institute of Medicine, the National Institute of Mental Health, or the American Academy of Pediatrics. They know about the endless conflict of interest waivers these people have because of their financial ties to the vaccine industry.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is rampant with such waivers and they're the people that approve and recommend the vaccine schedule. The last head of the CDC, Julie Gerberding, a long-time denier of any link between vaccines and autism, left her position and went directly to work at Merck as head of the vaccine division.
The American Academy of Pediatrics gets millions from pharma for conferences, grants, and education classes and the drug industry even helped build their headquarters.
How truly independent are any of these people?
Laura Helmuth said that the increase in autism is "better diagnoses." Really? As I continue to ask all over the place, where are the 40, 50, and 60 year olds with autism? If they were mislabeled as something else, find them and show them to us. No one has even been able to show us autistic adults at a rate even remotely close to what we see in our children. Personally, I see this as a reason to panic. A once-rare disorder is now affecting kids everywhere and we're doing nothing about it.
Meanwhile, Slate is proud to announce that they're "not giving equal time" to those who believe vaccines are having a serious and negative impact on the health of our children. Their not-too-subtle call for censorship will leave Slate in the dust clouds of obscurity. The truth is, more and more top experts know something is wrong with a vaccine schedule that more than tripled in the last 25 years without a single study on the cumulative effect of so many vaccines so soon on the health of a child.
More and more scientists and doctors do see a problem with vaccines. They're doing the research that doesn't make the evening news. They're finding the links that our health officials chose to ignore.
Why is Slate pretending that Robert Kennedy Jr is responsible for this?
I would like Laura Helmuth at Slate to look into a few of experts who don't agree that a one-size-fits-all vaccine schedule is safe.
This was just posted on the website for the movie, The Greater Good:
The following is a list of scientists and physicians who acknowledge that vaccines can and do harm some children and/or have some concern about a vaccine, combinations of vaccines, the vaccine schedule, or an ingredient or ingredients in vaccines. These professionals are not anti-vaccine (though some of the medical doctors are) rather they recognize that vaccines, like all pharmaceutical products, carry risks. They also know that scientific inquiry should never cease.
They have either spoken publicly about their concerns or have published research that explores safety issues relating to a vaccine, the vaccine schedule, a combination of vaccines or ingredients in vaccines.
While the media attacks Dr. Andrew Wakefield claiming he is the only doctor with concerns about vaccines and that he alone has caused millions of parents to lose faith in vaccinations, this assertion is demonstrably untrue. Rather, hundreds of scientists and doctors have voiced concerns and have published research investigating adverse reactions to vaccines and their components. Placing the blame for parental concerns on Dr. Andrew Wakefield is disingenuous at best and blatantly dishonest at worst. Parents have read the research themselves and this is why they are concerned.
It is time for the media to do their job, read the research and talk with the hundreds of doctors and scientists who have expressed concerns. . . .
Anne Dachel is Media Editor for Age of Autism.
It's ridiculous how science takes the fifth to protect "science".
It's like that bad video of Maurice Hilleman that we keep coming back to...you know the one where he thinks he's off record and spills the beans to the cackling MDs?
The fact that Merck fully knew they were seeding Americans with cancer cells and assorted viruses including AIDS couldn't be science because science didn't want people to know what science really is and what that knowledge in the open does to the value of Merck stock.
More American citizens died from taking Vioxx (57,000) than in combat during the entire length of the Vietnam War (53,000).
There's no such thing as good science. You mess with stuff and it will come back to bite you...hard.
Are we there yet?
Posted by: Media Scholar | June 14, 2013 at 05:55 AM
"The truth is, more and more top experts know something is wrong with a vaccine schedule that more than tripled in the last 25 years without a single study on the cumulative effect of so many vaccines so soon on the health of a child."
Oh we do have a good study now. It absolutely obliterates the "schedule" as a deadly fraud killing our kids at an ever increasing rate as more and more "vaccine" doses are added.
Upon analysis, the team found that the more vaccines a child receives during a single doctor visit, the more likely he or she is to suffer a severe reaction or even die. According to Heidi Stevenson from Gaia Health, for each additional vaccine a child receives, his or her chance of death increases by an astounding 50 percent — and with each additional vaccine dose, chances of having to be hospitalized for severe complications increase two-fold. To sum it all up, the overall size of the vaccine load was found to be directly associated with hospitalization and death risk, illustrating the incredible dangers of administering multiple vaccines at once." Relative trends in hospitalizations and mortality among infants by the number of vaccine doses and age, based on the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS), 1990–2010
http://het.sagepub.com/content/31/10/1012.long
"[A] confidential study conducted by Connaught Laboratories, a vaccine manufacturer, indicated that ‘‘a fifty-fold under-reporting of adverse events’’ is likely. According to David Kessler, former commissioner of the FDA, ‘‘only about one percent of serious events [adverse drug reactions] are reported."
Posted by: Lou | June 13, 2013 at 11:02 PM
Thank you Nora,great letter.You spoke from your heart.
Posted by: oneVoice | June 13, 2013 at 09:58 PM
Every one of these "journalists" should make their own and their children's vax records public. Put your money where the shot goes and fess up - every booster up to date? Every infant shot on the market administered to your own child? I'll show you mine if you show me yours.....
Posted by: Show Me Your Child's Vax Records | June 13, 2013 at 08:26 PM
People such as Plait and Helmuth are irrelevant, and in fact they continue to lose the credibility in their field, not to say they had any in the first place. You don't gain respect for being one-sided in journalism, so obviously this is not what they're looking for, they are simply spreading propaganda, and that's their strategy, a bad one for Slate!
Posted by: Victor Pavlovic | June 13, 2013 at 06:47 PM
JWIZNITZER
Cuts both ways, doesn't it?
Posted by: FOR JWIZNITZER | June 13, 2013 at 06:09 PM
Nothing good should be expected from Slate. It is a corporate magazine owned previously by Microsoft, now by Wash Post. And every corporate publication serves their corporate masters. They all have a group of servile, stupid and corrupted journalist whose role is to protect corporate interests. Helmuth is just that. Nobody cares what she says.
Posted by: no-vac | June 13, 2013 at 05:29 PM
"Parents know there is more to this than the tired official mantra, 'studies show no link.'"
Yes, never let the facts get in the way of what you "know".
Posted by: J. W. Iznitzer | June 13, 2013 at 05:20 PM
It's a shame Slate employs people like Plait and Helmuth because it makes all the other decent journalists working there look less respectable. If I worked there, I would probably figure out a way to change jobs.
Posted by: Birgit Calhoun | June 13, 2013 at 04:42 PM
@ Nora
I agree wholeheartedly with the comments you sent to Ms. Helmuth .. but .. like all former "scientists" .. who have become "advocacy journalists" .. masquerading as "scientists" .. I seriously doubt she will make any effort to defend .. either herself as a former "scientist" .. or .. what is now her sorry profession as an "advocacy journalist".
How long do you think Ms. Helmuth would last as a "journalist" at Slate .. if she dared to admit as a "scientist" .. that RFK has valid reasons to question the "safety" of the enormously profittable vaccine industry? An industry that just happens to provide the salary that Ms. Helmuth now enjoys.
Posted by: Bob Moffitt | June 13, 2013 at 03:44 PM
@Birgit Calhoun . Simultaneous tears of joy and pain....an unforgettable moment, no doubt.
Thank you.
Posted by: Zed | June 13, 2013 at 11:38 AM
Thimerosal isn't just a neurotoxin; it's also an allergen. Children and adults are frequently allergic to it--and that's just from a patch placed on the skin. Thimerosal is part of a T.R.U.E. Test allergy panel--along with "mercapto mix." Mercaptobenzothiazole and its relatives are potential contaminants of pharmaceutical solutions which come in contact with rubber. That includes many of the common vaccines.
Posted by: Carol | June 13, 2013 at 11:00 AM
(I sent this letter to Ms. Helmuth last night.)
Ms. Helmuth,
May I just say that this piece you have written is a “rag” as my Irish father would of put it. How dare you criticize RFK jr. by calling him an anti-vaccer. The word is repugnant and is used to dismiss those who believe vaccines can cause harm.
RFK jr. is in every way following in the footsteps of his father and his uncles. He is a man of conviction, fighting for what he believes in and not succumbing to the obvious pressures being exerted by slate.com. You see this takes strength of character, something I am sure you believe you have, but for all intensive purposes were not blessed with. He like his father is lead by a higher cause, the truth.
Your efforts to dismiss RFK jr. are entirely evident as nothing more than a hit piece. The use of much repeated propaganda and misinformation to harm RFK jr. is an obvious attempt to undermine what he has done. In his attending the recent Autism One Conference, he upped the ante. He has become a target and it is now open hunting season by corporate rags like slate.com
I have watched as the magazines and newspapers that my father filled our house with, the journals that spoke truth to power, all but disappear. You are nothing more than a corporate science writer, working for a corporate paycheck. You have a job and title to protect. RFK jr. has no master, he is independently wealthy, he has no reason to be an advocate regarding mercury in vaccines. He has no reason to lie to you regarding scientist he spoke of(on the other hand the scientist have every reason to lie about what they said to him.) He always has approached environmental issues with the truth and has fought long and hard against corporate greed.
The CDC like the NSA has been allowed to run rampant in regards to vaccines. When you allow such close connections between corporate contractors and the government, corruption is just always a step away. Good intentions regarding vaccines easily move into profit ratios. With no realistic jury and trial system available to the injured vaccine recipient, it became a hay day for the vaccine manufactures.
We all know what is going on. And to suggest that RFK jr. is a villain for having the guts to stand up to this nightmare is beyond the pale. There is a real world out here and I can honestly say that I am not finding anyone that is in agreement with you in regards to the safety of vaccines.
I now like my father, am older and wiser and I know propaganda when I see it. Take your rag of an article and put in the trash receptacle where it belongs. Just so you know, I have a grandson who regressed after vaccines. He is now blind in one eye, has a multitude of other health issues including the catch all disease Autism.
Oh and I find it so amazing that you are not upset about the numbers of children with autism. Where is your condemnation of the CDC for not finding out the cause in the last fifteen years?
One more point, I find it beyond reproach that you would suggest that RFK jr. is a conspiracy theorist. You must surely be aware of the word conspiracy and its connotation regarding his father’s and uncle’s assassinations. This is shameful and shows a lack of etiquette in matters that deserve our deepest respect.
Regards
Nora Brock
Posted by: Nora | June 13, 2013 at 10:35 AM
Are you serious ? this Helmet actually said this :
"...the mercury used in vaccines 'isn't the dangerous kind'."
Well this Slate must be a comedy website in that case , if this is the best they can come up with .
I went to a toxicologist called Ellen Silbeberg once and asked , does the mercury in vaccines cause autism ?
"NO" she screamed back at me .
Someone else then asked her the direct simple question if she would ever allow mercury in vaccines for herself and her family (or mercury amalgams) ? She got very short tempered at this , and refused to answer the question !
Ask any toxicoligist in the world , there is only one answer, there is no safe level of mercury EVER .
I hope Helmet doesnt keep on vaccinating herself and her family based on the science she is counting on.
Posted by: White Rose | June 13, 2013 at 08:58 AM
I was over at Slate a day or two back.
I retired due to a similar situation to Victor Pavlovic.
I can tell you that they (they being the same old bloggers) do not like the story of the US Somalian refugee autism rates. They get pretty nasty about that.
It was an unbalanced article which led to the same old bloggers behaving like pack of mangy dogs. Perhaps they are on performance related pay ?
There is indeed mounting presure from those who dare to think for themselves.
Posted by: Letthembegot | June 13, 2013 at 08:25 AM
Among this doom and gloom check out this YouTube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jzfIBM1xFdw
Posted by: Birgit Calhoun | June 13, 2013 at 08:22 AM
I have read Slate in the past and their authors are generally good ones. Helmuth, however, isn't one of them. Maybe Slate has gotten careless. It is irresponsible to say: "...the mercury used in vaccines 'isn't the dangerous kind'." I think her "Scientism" needs to be flagged: Or better the whole article needs to be ignored. This person doesn't know her stuff. Enough said. I am looking forward to reading Kennedy's book.
Posted by: Birgit Calhoun | June 13, 2013 at 07:13 AM
Jake .... dont be so hasty ...maybe he will publish !
Posted by: White Rose | June 13, 2013 at 04:54 AM
All these scientists on the pro-vaccine side , I mean the proper scientists (not the numpties like G Beard and others)
These people know full well the carnage and destruction that vaccinations are causing (just like Maurice Hilleman admitted .) They know vaccines are the sole cause of autism
(eg Julie Geberding admitted to CNN) , they know vaccines can cause diabetes , MS , ALS , all the auto immune disorders , cancers ...... they know all this .
This means they are criminals and need to be prosecuted as such . So you top boys out there , please be aware our day will come , there will be no immunity or amnesty .
You will answer in both this life first and then the next for your downright blatant lies . VaccinesWMDs , Hg-enocide
Posted by: White Rose | June 13, 2013 at 04:34 AM
I'd like to place an advance order of 10 copies of RFK's up and coming blockbuster !
Posted by: White Rose | June 13, 2013 at 04:23 AM
For a cultural parallel to vaccine safety misinformation, here is the Rachel Carson equivalent to the NDs' sickening sites called "Jenny McCarthy Body Count."
http://rachelwaswrong.org/
Some people still refer to Carson as a "baby killer" believing she caused a ban on DDT that led to malaria outbreaks. However the author, who was dying from cancer, only suggested more judicious use of the chemical.
Posted by: nhokkanen | June 12, 2013 at 11:11 PM
Helmuth brags about her Ph.D., invoking those letters like some mystical charm of social elevation. I got the same chuckle from her self-puffery as from Dr. Science of Duck's Breath Mystery Theatre, who says he has "a Master's Degree... in science!"
Helmuth's actual degree is in cognitive neuroscience, so what little she may know of autism is based on outdated college text generalizations. BTW, she also is on the board of the National Association of Science Writers, whose president works for the Wall Street Journal.
She is reaching pathetically when she attempts to dismiss the fact that RFK Jr. actually MET Rachel Carson via his famous father. Helmuth quotes some lines from a recent popular Carson biography, ignoring the large portions in the book about the environmental writer's defamation by industry and government.
How very detrimental to Helmuth's credibility that she would give more credence to some author's decades-delayed interpretation from archival notes, rather than someone who met the author and is a lifelong ultimate political insider.
Posted by: nhokkanen | June 12, 2013 at 11:03 PM
http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/collideascape/2013/06/11/its-the-best-of-times-to-scare-yourself-to-death/#.UbkFrJz-RWp
RFK, Jr.'s new book...
Posted by: Mom | June 12, 2013 at 07:38 PM
"PARIS (Reuters Health) Nov 20 - A report on France’s controversial hepatitis B vaccination campaign in the mid-nineties has slammed the government for failing to assess possible side effects properly beforehand. The campaign was launched in 1994 and over the next 3 years, more than 70 million doses were used and an automatic vaccination programme was set up in schools. But it was dropped in 1998 after hundreds of reports of side effects had been logged, and has not yet been re-instated.
The report’s author, Dr. Marc Girard, says his investigation 'shows the public powers supported a massive vaccination campaign, costing an estimated 1.5 billion euros, without possessing a reliable enough drug monitoring system to assess the secondary effects of the medication,' according to extracts printed in the French newspapers Le Parisien and Le Figaro. Dr. Girard, who had access to numerous documents from the French health product safety agency and the drug-monitoring centre in Strasbourg, accuses the health authority of 'distortion' and 'dissimulation.'
The report was ordered by Judge Marie-Odile Bertella-Geffroy, currently presiding over a negligence case brought by the families of eight people—four of whom have died—who claim they developed neurological problems as a result of participating in the hepatitis B vaccination campaign.
In all, some 200 complaints have been lodged over the last few years, mainly from people with multiple sclerosis. According to Dr. Girard, 'health authorities worked to minimise the situation.' He estimates the number of individuals with neurological problems as a result of the vaccine to be in the thousands. Officially, pharmacovigilance centres have reported 900 cases of MS possibly arising from the vaccine.
Following anecdotal reports linking the hepatitis B vaccine with the onset of multiple sclerosis, the World Health Organisation recently undertook a review of all data on the subject and determined there was not enough evidence to support a causal association between the vaccine and MS.
However, a memo from the French General Directorate for Health, dated February 15, 2002, stated that the hepatitis B campaign produced the 'greatest series of side effects noted by pharmacovigilance since its creation in 1974.' Dr. Girard says the documents he has seen appear to show that crucial evidence on vaccine tolerance was withheld from doctors so as not to ruin the vaccination drive. He goes on to slam the health administration for 'collaborating intensively with the vaccine manufacturers.'"
http://www.rolandsimion.org/spip.php?article14&lang=fr
"Officially, pharmacovigilance centres have reported 900 cases of MS possibly arising from the vaccine."
Posted by: Carol | June 12, 2013 at 07:22 PM
Anne, when I went on Slate.com earlier I was attacked and out numbered by at least 10 to 1 by the pro-vaccine zombies, they were ready and attempted everything to prove me wrong, and as usual were playing word games to prove a point in their favor, and were doing everything in their power to make anyone that questions vaccine safety, and the connection to autism look foolish, to me they continue to further expose the vaccine/autism link even though its their one sided coverage.
Posted by: Victor Pavlovic | June 12, 2013 at 06:22 PM